Church to host teen conference

Events will run through Sunday

TROY – Troy United Methodist Church is hosting its Fire-Up Conference this weekend.

The conference is for high school students, and the theme for the conference is Fearless.

Events begin at 7 p.m. Friday at the church.

Tom Price is the leader of the Harvest Team, which puts on the retreat. Harvest is based out of Troy United Methodist Church, but it puts on conferences like Fire-Up throughout southern Illinois.

“It’s a church discipleship conference,” Price said. “We’ll have worship, small groups, seminars, and recreation.” Troy United Methodist Church, as the sponsoring host, provides snacks, food and hospitality, he said. “It’s an opportunity for worship, prayer, and growing in Christ,” he said.

“The first year of the conference was 1997,” Price said. Each year there is a keynote speaker, and this year, it will be Tom Richter.

“For the last 14 years, he has been pastor of an international church in Queens, New York,” Price said. “He speaks all over the country doing events like this. He’s very gifted in terms of speaking the language of the students.”

Price said he expects between 150 and 200 kids at this event. “Some years we have more, some less,” he said. “But thousands have come through over the years.”

In addition to the conferences, there is also the Harvest Band. They will be playing at the conference.

“We’ve been around since 1996,” Price said. The group changes as members leave and join. Price is the only founding member. “At least two members in it now weren’t born when it started,” he said.

The band plays a mix of modern worship songs and other Christian music.

“We write some songs, but cover most,” Price said. “We have a pool of about 20 people for the band, and probably about 250 have been with us as musicians over the years,” he said.

“There are three parts to the Harvest Ministry,” Price said. “The band, the conferences and the summer teams, who lead music at youth camps and gatherings.”

Price said that over 15 churches will send students to the Fire-up conference. “It’s open to all, but usually a church group will register as a group,” he said. The conference will start on Friday night at end with a 10:45 worship service on Sunday.

“The mission of the church is to reach people in the name of Jesus,” Price said. “This is one part of that. Our target audience is kids who are in church already. We want them to really follow Jesus wholeheartedly.”